Cornyn addresses de facto earmarks in Immigration Bill

Community Reports

Published 2:10 pm, Tuesday, July 2, 2013

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) addressed the de facto earmarks and accounting tricks that have been included in the immigration reform bill recently on the Senate floor. The full speech can be seen here and excerpts of his remarks are below:

“One of the things my constituents in Texas found so infuriating about the process of passing the Affordable Care Act — all 2,700 pages long - was the way there were backroom deals and various special-interest boondoggles that helped garner the 60 votes necessary to pass Obamacare back in 2010. Some of them became somewhat famous.

“Unfortunately, we’re starting to see similar tactics break out here on this immigration issue, suggesting that some members are so desperate to get a deal — any deal — they’re willing to take a bad deal, one in which none of these standing alone would pass muster or scrutiny.

“Immigration reform is a nationwide challenge, and immigration reform should promote the national interest — not the special interest of individual Senators or any region or state or lobbying group.

“Supporters of the underlying bill continue to argue that this legislation will actually reduce the federal deficit. It’s a bizarre situation where you can spend almost $50 billion and claim that it actually reduces the deficit, but that’s the argument.

“And yet, as I explained on Monday, the only way you can transform this bill into a deficit reduction bill is by double-counting more than $211 billion worth of Social Security revenue. In other words, the money paid in, in terms of Social Security taxes, is eventually going to have to be paid out in benefits.

“And you can’t say you’ll pay it out in benefits and then you’ll also use that surplus to fund the underlying bill, because that’s double counting. But only in Washington can you get away with such magical accounting techniques.

“You’re left with a bill that’s chockfull of de facto earmarks, pork-barrel spending and special interest sweeteners, a bill that increase the on-budget deficit, but fails to guarantee a border that’s secure and offers only promises, which historically Congress has been very, very, very, very bad about keeping.

“Does that sound like real immigration reform? I know we can do better, and I know we must do better if we’re ever going to solve our biggest immigration problems. I would love to support an immigration reform bill. Unfortunately, the way this bill is shaping up, I cannot and will not.”

Cornyn serves on the Finance and Judiciary Committees. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.